Close X
Thursday, November 14, 2024
ADVT 
Interesting

This Cop Never Forgets a Face; Has Recognized Over 850 Criminals

Darpan News Desk IANS, 08 Oct, 2016 05:00 PM
    Andy Pope, a Police Community Support Officer for West Midlands Police, in the UK, has come to be known as memory cop, thanks to his incredible photographic memory, which has helped him successfully identify over 850 suspects in the last four years.
     
    Every day, PCSO Pope arrives at work half an hour early, logs on to his computer, and browses the pictures of suspects in the day's internal police briefing.
     
    He has been doing it even since he joined the West Midlands Police, in 2008, and as his brain stores more faces year-on-year, his record of recognizing bad guys keeps getting better. His exceptional identification skills have made him somewhat of a secret weapon, and when detectives exhaust all other possible options trying to put a name to a suspect's face, they turn to him.
     
    Inspector Gareth Morris, Pope's chief officer, remembers that only two days after joining the West Midlands Police, "memory cop" came to him with a photo saying he knew who the robbery suspect was.
     
    "I told him I would struggle to pick out my own mother in a picture like that. One and a half hours later Andy had stopped the guy in the city centre and the suspect had admitted being present at the scene."
     
    But he was only getting started. In the last four years, PCSO Pope has been able to identify over 850 suspects, averaging about one recognition every other shift.
     
     
    "If you look at a picture enough times, there is usually something that sticks in the mind as distinctive. Maybe I can't pinpoint what that something is at the time, but when I see the person in the flesh, it triggers that recognition," Pope says.
     
    That's what happened in March of 2011, when a simple glance at a computer screen was enough for him to recognize an offender. Detectives had been analyzing the footage for hours, but he just saw the suspect's distinctive bum fluff and knew he had seen the guy before. He once identified a robber whose photo he had looked at a year before, and another from a grainy CCTV video, by a tiny mole on his face.
     
    PCSO Andy Pope first attracted the attention of the media in 2012, when he was already hailed as a phenomenon, after identifying about 250 suspects, some of which he had brought in himself after recognizing them on the street. But according to a recent ITV report, Pope's record has improved substantially in the last four years - 850 successful recognitions.
     
     
    "I thought I was just normal until Inspector Morris told me I was identifying far more people than anyone else," Pope told The Telegraph in 2012. "I don't know whether I have a photographic memory. My wife has to deal with things like birthdays and anniversaries. When it comes to remembering dates, I'm useless."

    MORE Interesting ARTICLES

    Use This 'Order A Daddy’ App To Choose The Father Of Your Child

    Use This 'Order A Daddy’ App To Choose The Father Of Your Child
    With most transactions being conducted online, Britain’s women can now choose sperm donors on an app as well.

    Use This 'Order A Daddy’ App To Choose The Father Of Your Child

    Norwegians Now Can Change Genders Legally With A Mouse Click

    Norwegians Now Can Change Genders Legally With A Mouse Click
    HAUGESUND, Norway — Ten-year-old Anna Thulin-Myge's passport shows what looks like an ordinary Norwegian girl wearing her long, blond hair fastened with a clip. It lists her first name as Anna, but under sex it says "M."

    Norwegians Now Can Change Genders Legally With A Mouse Click

    Hundreds Of Romanian Couples Cash In On Lasting Love

    Hundreds Of Romanian Couples Cash In On Lasting Love
    BUCHAREST, Romania — A district of the Romanian capital on Monday celebrated hundreds of couples who have been married for at least half a century by handing out cash awards and inviting them to a joint lunch.

    Hundreds Of Romanian Couples Cash In On Lasting Love

    British Woman Becomes World's Youngest Commercial Airline Captain

    British Woman Becomes World's Youngest Commercial Airline Captain
    Kate McWilliams, with budget carrier easyJet, is based at London's Gatwick Airport. She began flying at the age of 13 in the air cadets before embarking on a training programme at CTC Aviation in Southampton on her 19th birthday.

    British Woman Becomes World's Youngest Commercial Airline Captain

    Watch: He Stopped Plane On Runway. Then Another Aircraft Crashed Right Into Him

    Watch: He Stopped Plane On Runway. Then Another Aircraft Crashed Right Into Him
    Thom Richard was competing in the Reno National Championship Air Races on September 18 when his plane was hit from behind by another aircraft.

    Watch: He Stopped Plane On Runway. Then Another Aircraft Crashed Right Into Him

    Trump Vs. Clinton Debate Monday: Let The Psychological Games Begin

    Trump Vs. Clinton Debate Monday: Let The Psychological Games Begin
    They feared opposition parties would leak their most damaging material to media just before a debate, to pull the prime minister and his top aides out of debate training and into a time-wasting exercise in damage control.

    Trump Vs. Clinton Debate Monday: Let The Psychological Games Begin